Although we have been pleased with our basement family room install (Napoleon 1400), we have a hard time getting heat to go upstairs. The stove is installed in the basement directly across from the stairwell but it is 20 ft away. Once the stove gets rocking, I can feel the convection on the stairwell with heat is stratified upstairs - near the ceiling (below the atic) it can get reach the comfort level but the floors are drafty (due to the convection) and cooler. The stove has an OAK and we use that (air tests showed we're airtight and leaning towards negative pressure when running the dryer or vacuum - we crack a window on startup).
We purchased an ecofan last winter and that seemed to help convection along with a small fan at the base of the door to the room with the stove. With the help of tax credits, we upped the insulation in the attic this summer from R30 to R65 - that should help but now I am wondering about blowers and/or bigger fans. To get that convection really going, which will be a better bang for my buck: a stove blower ($300+) or a powerful tower fan ($50 or so)? I would like to find a way to keep downstairs at a more livable temperature instead of the required 90s so we can get to 70-75 upstairs.
Thanks for your input!
We purchased an ecofan last winter and that seemed to help convection along with a small fan at the base of the door to the room with the stove. With the help of tax credits, we upped the insulation in the attic this summer from R30 to R65 - that should help but now I am wondering about blowers and/or bigger fans. To get that convection really going, which will be a better bang for my buck: a stove blower ($300+) or a powerful tower fan ($50 or so)? I would like to find a way to keep downstairs at a more livable temperature instead of the required 90s so we can get to 70-75 upstairs.
Thanks for your input!